The present invention relates to a data link connector (DLC), or on-board diagnostics port (“OBD port”), in a motor vehicle. Since 1996, DLCs for U.S. automobiles have been standardized (e.g., for connector type and communication protocol) according to the “OBD-II” standard. This enables a vehicle owner or service professional to plug a scan tool into the vehicle's OBD-II port and retrieve information relating to fault codes stored in the vehicle's engine control unit (ECU), which monitors various sensors and controls engine operation via fuel metering and/or throttle control. Although the U.S. government mandates that the OBD-II port provide access to information relating to emissions subsystems of the vehicle (i.e., catalytic converter(s), exhaust gas sensor(s), etc.), OBD-II ports are typically enabled by auto manufacturers to allow access to parameters and fault codes related to many additional vehicle subsystems.
OBD-II ports, which are typically mounted at the lower portion of the instrument panel near the steering wheel, are 16-pin female connectors connected to the vehicle's ECU by a wire harness. The wire harness contains a set of wires, each of which runs from one of the female pin receptors of the OBD-II port to the ECU. When a scan tool is plugged into the OBD-II port via a cable with a complementary plug, the scan tool communicates directly with the ECU for fault code retrieval and parameter checking and resetting.